Breakfast Strategy Meeting
by VioletStella
Summary: Mulder and Scully with some words of wisdom. Spoilers for the whole series.
I've been holding off posting this until Season 10 ended in Germany, so that my friends there would not be spoiled by some of the commentary I make in this story. The premise for this story is: what would life be like for Mulder and Scully if the series had ended after season 8? (In my head, the story did end after season 8 and everything since then has been Mulder's imagination at work. As always, thank you for reading.)

Breakfast Strategy Meeting

"Our intrepid hero is slumped in the passenger seat of a car, close to death. He is stranded on a bridge, surrounded by other cars. He knows his beloved is near, she's on her way to save him, but will this be the time she doesn't make it to him quickly enough? The car door opens and there's the most beautiful sight he has ever seen. She's arrived, but he sees in her eyes that she is worried that she is too late. He's seen that look before; it never bodes well and usually requires a nasty hospital stay for him. Suddenly, a shaft of light beams down out of the darkness. Could it be aliens?"

"Yeah, yeah, Dad; it's a great plot for your new novel, but how does that answer my question of how to ask out Lauren?"

"Patience, William," Mulder answered.

"So you're saying I need to wait until the world is coming to an end before I ask her out?"

A light-hearted laugh came from the other side of the kitchen. Our intrepid hero's beloved Scully and her mother made their way to the breakfast table with the last of the pancakes that Maggie had prepared. Mulder stood, pulled out a chair for Maggie and took a plate from her as she sat down. Scully put the other plate on the table and kissed her son on the head. "What your father is saying...actually, I'm not sure what your father is saying, but I know his story telling is an integral part of his grand plan, it always is. As for dating, I can't think of a single time he asked me out." She sat down in the chair Mulder pulled out for her, next to him, to make it easier in case she had any need to kick him in the shins, and considering the subject matter she thought it highly likely she might have just cause. Mulder reseated himself and piled more pancakes on his plate.

"What are you talking about? Every case was a date," Mulder pointed out.

"It was? This is news to me," she joked.

"So you _never_ asked mom out?" William couldn't quite believe this.

"No, I skipped past that and went straight to asking her to marry me, which she ignored."

"Rightly so and subtlety was never one of your strengths."

"Come to think of it, I don't think she ever did answer," Mulder pondered.

"What do you mean? We're married, aren't we?" Scully pointed out the obvious.

Mulder looked at the wedding band on his finger, "we are indeed, but you never actually said yes. We just started making wedding plans."

"Having a kid will do that; and if you recall properly, I did ask you to father said child. That's a big 'yes'."

"So you're saying you only married me because you wanted me to be there for the child you asked me to father?"

"That's usually the way it works."

Maggie had some other thoughts on the way this usually worked, but since they were married she felt it far past the time to make any comment.

"I'd have been there no matter what, married or not." This was starting to bother Mulder, he knew he should chalk it up to their own brand of communication, but a marriage proposal is the type of question that requires a verbal yes or no.

Scully had to bite back a, "now you tell me." Their playful breakfast conversation had taken a far too serious turn for her.

"A guy wants to hear a 'yes', Scully, it's the most beautiful word in the English language to him."

Trying to brush away his innuendo as quickly as she could, she said, "I'm sure it is, Mulder, but we have a son who needs some parental advice, now is not the time for this discussion."

Even though Scully had turned her attention to their son, she could feel Mulder still looking at her. He wasn't letting this go. Finally, she had to turn back to him, "what?"

"Just waiting for an answer," was his smug reply.

"What if I say 'no'?"

"Dana!" her mother shushed her. One did not joke about a sacrament like this in front of Mrs. Scully.

Scully did not want to play, there was something going on with Mulder behind the banter. She felt like if she acquiesced to this that she would be losing a battle. It was silly to look at this as a battle, but with Mulder so desperately wanting her to declare her love for him in front of other people, even though they were two of the three most precious people on the planet to her, she felt at a disadvantage. This didn't sit well with Scully. She was too private for even that. Mulder keep looking at her, silently imploring her to answer his long-standing question. She looked back at him and silently asked, "why is this so important to you?" He just kept looking deeply into her eyes.

Finally, in frustration, Scully threw up her hands and said, "yes, I will...or, did, marry you."

The type of joy that instantly infused Mulder's face was one that she rarely saw in the first years of their partnership, one time being when her cancer went into remission. The joy had become more common during the past few years, but Scully still never tired of it. He didn't take this chance to gloat, he just let the happiness shine through, put his arms around his wife and kissed her.

"Some of us are trying to eat here," William gagged.

"William!" His grandmother tried to quiet him, but it was too late, Mulder and Scully broke apart. Mulder wasn't going to completely break the connection though, he leaned back in his chair and kept one arm across the back of Scully's chair. If it just so happened that his arm happened to touch her shoulders? Well, that wasn't much of a mystery to delve into.

"William," his father started, "what I am saying is, when you find someone, do everything you can to show her how you feel and keep her in your life."

"Yes, be sure to drop by her place at 3am and call her at all hours of the day and night, seven days a week. Women love that." Scully's sarcasm had not diminished through the years.

"It worked, and that way I knew no one else was in your life."

There was some joke to be made there about Mulder marking his territory, but Scully wasn't going to make it in front of their son, and her mother, so she chose another tactic, "Mulder, there was no one else in my life from so soon after we started working together that...son of a...," Scully noticed her mother glaring at her, "...you're right, Mulder, every case was a date." This full realization, coming after so many years, stunned Scully.

"I know it pains you to say I'm right, so I won't gloat about it...much." Much? He was already mentally making plans to have a plaque made to commemorate the occasion.

Finally losing patience, William threw in the towel, or in this case, his napkin, "forget it, I'll just ask Bobby, he knows all about girls." William started to move away from the table.

"He's a 15 year old kid, William, what he knows about women could fit in the nucleus of an atom," Mulder noted, sagely.

"Good one," Scully agreed.

"Thank you," Mulder bowed his head in acknowledgment.

Maggie's "not to be disobeyed" voice asked, "William, where are you going? I know your appetite better than that. Sit down and finish your breakfast. If you parents could stop flirting long enough, you could see your father has a point."

No man with any sense ever argued with a Scully woman, "Yes, grandma." He obeyed and started in on a fresh stack of pancakes.

"Thank you, Maggie. Now, William, my first question is, is she smart?" Mulder asked.

"What does that have to do with anything?" William said, exasperated and with his mouth full of pancake. He was used to his Dad taking the roundabout way to get to the point, but this was ridiculous.

"That's everything. Always go for the smart ones, William. If you never take any other piece of fatherly advice from me, take that."

"I just want to ask a girl to a dance! I knew I should have asked the Gunmen for advice," he said, with his mouth again full of pancake.

"The Gunmen? They know even less about women than a 15 year old boy." Mulder was incredulous. How could his own flesh and blood dismiss his advice and even consider the Gunmen as an option?

"Mulder, that's not a nice thing to say," Scully admonished.

"But it's true."

"No, it's not, the Gunmen can be quite the gentlemen, when they want to be." Scully intervened.

"Just because they have the sense to like you doesn't mean I trust them with dating advice," Mulder said.

Scully turned back to her son's dilemma, "William, all you have to do is say, 'Lauren, will you please go to the dance with me?' And don't ask her when you have food in your mouth."

"But what if she says no?" A terrified William asked.

His mother leaned over the table and answered conspiratorially, "William, here's a secret about 15 year old girls; they want to be liked just as much as 15 year old boys do."

"Yeah?" William was amazed by this bombshell his mother just dropped.

"Yeah," she smiled as she leaned back.

"Don't worry about it kiddo, you've got Mulder charm, she won't be able to resist," his Dad encouraged.

Scully looked a little dubious about this so-called Mulder charm.

Still not convinced by his mother's advice, and also not convinced of this so-called Mulder charm, William thought of someone else for a second opinion,"maybe I'll give Uncle Walter a call."

"Now there you might have something," his mother agreed.

"I knew it, I knew you always had a thing for him," Mulder verbally pounced.

"Jealous?" One Scully eyebrow playfully arched.

"You'd better believe it," Mulder grinned.

"Yet another off the wall concept you want me to believe in, Mulder? I thought we were past that in our relationship," Scully parried.

"I will never get past wanting you to believe," Mulder scored a point.

Calling a truce, Scully changed the subject, "how about just getting to work? You have a deadline with your publisher and I have a class to teach."

"Fine. Spoil sport," Mulder grumbled.

"Mom, if he gets out of hand, you have, as always, my permission to shoot him," Scully said.

Mulder stuck his tongue out at Dana.

"Now Fox, that's not very well-mannered. Don't stick your tongue unless you are going to use it, and if you are, take my daughter into another room."

Mulder and Scully looked at each other in shock, then burst out laughing.

"I'm so out of here. Thanks for the pancakes, grandma," William said, this time actually leaving the table and kissing his grandmother and mother and high-fiving his father on the way out.

"So, what do you say?" Mulder asked, waggling his eyebrows, his mind back to just how he would like to use his tongue, and it had nothing to do with pancakes.

"I say I have to go to work and you need to grow up."

"I thought my boyish agility was one of the things you like best about me," Mulder pointed out.

"Go!" Maggie literally pointed them out of the room.

"Yes, Mom," they answered in unison and scrambled from their chairs.

In the foyer, Scully picked up her briefcase. Mulder stood by the door, ready and very willing to give her her goodbye kiss.

"I'll be done with this class at 10:30, I'll call you after that."

"Oh good, a morning obscene phone call."

"There will be nothing obscene about it."

"Maybe not from your end of the line, but you can bet my first question will be, 'what are you wearing?'"

"Take a good look because I'll be wearing the same thing I am now."

Scully instantly saw the mistake in giving him that invitation as Mulder took the opportunity to give her a very, very good look starting at the top of her head and taking his sweet time moving his gaze all the way down her body. It was obvious it wasn't her clothes he was focused on, it was if he had suddenly developed X-ray vision and he was not so subtly enjoying every inch of her naked body. How he could tantalize her so when she was fully clothed she refused to think about. She had to get out of there, if she stayed one second longer, class today was going to be canceled.

"Mulder, I have to go"

"Sure," was his simple verbal response, but he pulled her close and made certain he put his tongue to very good use.

An impish Maggie took a quick peek into the hall, smiled, then started to clean up the breakfast dishes. She knew Fox would be in to help her, in his own good time, and she was in no hurry for his help.

"Mmm, maple syrupy," Mulder smiled as he finished his goodbye kiss.

"You're coming very close to not getting a phone call."

Mulder fake pouted for a moment, then turned serious and said, "I love you."

"I love you, too," she kissed him again, on the cheek. He opened the door and watched until she drove to the end of the driveway. They waved to each other and mentally started a countdown to when they would be in contact again.


End file.
